Pressley, 23, was an 11th-round pick out of high school in 2007 by the Boston Red Sox. He reached as high as Double-A in Boston's system last season.

Pressly owns a 4.27 career minor league ERA with 348 strikeouts and 178 walks in 447 1/3 innings. He was converted to the bullpen at Double-A Portland last year where he posted a 2.93 ERA with 21 strikeouts and 10 walks in 27 2/3 innings.

MLB.com's prospect reporter, Jonathan Mayo, writes Pressly "struggled at first" in his move to the bullpen, "but threw very well as a reliever when he moved up to Double-A Portland and that continued in the Arizona Fall League. Pressly has a big arm that can fire fastballs in the mid-90s and he has an outstanding power curve to go with it. He threw strikes in the AFL, a good sign."

Players are eligible to be selected in the Rule-5 draft if they have been in a team's system for five years (or four years for players originally drafted out of college) and are not on the 40-man roster. Once the player is selected in the Rule-5 draft, he must remain on the 25-man roster for the entire season or be offered back to his original team.

The three most notable Rule-5 draft picks by the Twins over the past two decades are outfielder Shane Mack, and left-handers Johan Santana and Scott Diamond.

The Twins took right-hander Terry Doyle in last year's Rule-5 draft, but they sent him back to the Chicago White Sox during spring training after multiple poor showings. Doyle wound up leaving the White Sox organization to pitch in Japan.

In the minor league phase of the Rule-5 draft, the Twins took third baseman Mark Sobolewski from the Toronto Blue Jays organization. Sobolewski, 25, hit .249/.286/.432 with 20 home runs in 479 plate appearances between Double-A and Triple-A last season.